Academy Supports Congressional Hearing Health Caucus at NIDCD Tour

Academy Supports Congressional Hearing Health Caucus at NIDCD Tour

On August 8, the Academy joined the Friends of the Congressional Hearing Health Caucus (FCHHC) on a tour of the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIDCD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. This event featured presentations by Elka Scordalakes, PhD, a legislative analyst for NIDCD, and Andrew Griffith, MD, PhD, NIDCD's scientific director, on the federally-funded research projects at NIDCD that Congressional appropriations support. Overall, the NIDCD conducts and supports research regarding hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language. In addition to the Academy, representatives from other organizations who are FCHHC and a number of high-level Congressional staffers attended the tour.

The Congressional Hearing Health Caucus is a coalition made up of members of Congress who promote hearing health care and is led by co-chairs Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA). This past May, the FCHHC hosted a briefing on untreated hearing loss in adults which featured presentations by audiologists Dave Fabry, PhD and Barbara Weinstein, PhD. The Academy has supported the efforts of the Congressional Hearing Health Caucus for several years now and looks forward to continuing this work into the 116th Congress.